by Olivia Gleason '26 on September 25, 2025
Editor's Column
Hi Cowl readers! I hope you are settling into your fall schedules and finding some time to rest and recharge as the semester gets busier. As I settle into my senior year, I have found myself reflecting on how my habits as a student have changed from when I first set foot on Providence College’s campus three years ago. I’ve always been someone who puts their studies first. My time as a high schooler was marked by what felt like endless hours of homework and studying as I juggled AP courses, athletics, friends, and family, and more often than not would intentionally miss out on time with people I cared about and time for myself in exchange for more time for schoolwork. This came with consequences: over the years of living out this attitude, I basically developed a mindset that equated success and hard work with extreme burnout.
I carried this mindset with me into the first semester of my freshman year at PC—it was what had given me success in the past, and most importantly at the time, it was familiar. At a point in my life where everything felt so uncertain and alien, my studies were something I could dive into headfirst with an all-or-nothing approach, and I took this opportunity at full force. While this gave me successful academic results, as it had in the past, I found myself feeling less fulfilled than I had in high school. No longer surrounded by my family or hometown friends, spending this much time on schoolwork without giving myself time to recharge or socialize was affecting me more deeply. Slowly, somewhere in between that first semester and the fall semester of my senior year, I recognized this and took small, baby steps to remedy this dilemma.
These steps were far from monumental on their own. In fact, all of them are incredibly simple and easy for me to implement into my daily routine. Sometimes, this looks like carving out some time in my day to catch up with my roommates and ask them about their classes or life happenings; sometimes, it looks like lighting a candle and putting on quiet music while I read a chapter from a novel I’ve been meaning to start; sometimes, it looks like going out to eat with friends. When implemented altogether, such simple things as these have provided me with the ability to succeed academically while also avoiding constant burnout and unfulfillment. In fact, creating a more balanced life for myself has given me a deeper focus on my education, as I am now much more intentional about how I spend my time when I do dedicate it to schoolwork.
All of this is to say, make sure you are taking time for yourself and unwinding once in a while this semester—even if this looks like a 20-minute chat with a friend. Burnout is real and inevitable at times, but it can be alleviated by putting yourself first in simple ways.